Buoyant water fowl decoy and method for making same

ABSTRACT

The water fowl decoy includes a body comprised of a rigid plastic outer shell filled with buoyant foam plastic material and a depending weighted keel comprised of a rigid plastic shell filled with concrete and having throughbores at each end thereof for receiving anchor ropes or stakes.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 397,551, filed July 12,1982, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,642.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to water fowl decoys such as duck andgoose decoys and to a method for making same.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

Heretofore various decoy constructions have been proposed including adecoy comprised of a canvas shell over a wood body, or filled with corkor kapok, a rubber shell over a wood body, a plastic sealed shell or abuoyant plastic foam body.

The canvas and cork or wood and rubber decoys required a significantamount of manual labor to produce and did not lend themselves to massproduction techniques.

The plastic sealed shell decoy works well except that when the integrityof the seal has been broken, the decoy often becomes waterlogged andsinks. This is particularly so when the decoy is hit with buckshot.

The plastic foam decoy works well but is not very rugged and isparticularly susceptible to being destroyed when hit by buckshot.

Examples of previously proposed decoys are disclosed in the followingpatents:

    ______________________________________                                        U.S. PAT. NO.       PATENTEE                                                  ______________________________________                                        2,134,891           Reinhart, Jr.                                             2,222,996           Armstrong                                                 2,256,778           Lundgren                                                  2,651,873           Risch et al.                                              2,880,544           Crummer et al.                                            4,023,297           Jorgensen                                                 ______________________________________                                    

The Reinhart, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 2,134,891 discloses a duck decoycomprising a fabric casing filled with a buoyant material such as groundcork, kapok or the like.

The Armstrong U.S. Pat. No. 2,222,996 discloses a decoy made of piecesof fabric material such as canvas or the like which is stuffed with abody portion made of pieces of ground cork held together by shellac. Atab is provided for an anchor rope.

The Lundgren U.S. Pat. No. 2,256,788 discloses a decoy which includes abuoyant body made of filler material surrounded by a casing made ofcanvas or other suitable fabric and which has a stake mounted in thebody and extending from the bottom for holding the decoy in an uprightposition when the stake is thrust into the ground.

The Risch et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,873 discloses a molded decoy whichis made of a hollow molded body of fibrous material such as paper pulp.The shell of the body and the shell of the head may be impregnated withasphalt or tar and an attachment means is provided for an anchor rope inthe form of a ring at the end of an eyelet screwed into the underside ofthe body.

The Crummer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,880,544 discloses a decoy comprisinga wooden body having a resilient or rubber cover thereover.

The Jorgensen U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,297 discloses a decoy having a mainbody shell and a lower body shell with a depending lug having apassageway therethrough for an anchor rope. Front and rear lugs areprovided on one embodiment of a goose decoy for receiving stakes forsecuring the goose decoy in position on the ground.

As will be described in greater detail hereinafter, the decoy of thepresent invention differs from these previously proposed decoys byproviding a water fowl decoy having a rigid outer plastic shell withbuoyant foam plastic material within the shell. Also, in one embodiment,the decoy of the present invention has a weighted keel and throughboresat each end of the keel for receiving anchor ropes or stakes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention there is provided a water fowl decoycomprising: a hollow shell body portion which has the shape of a waterfowl decoy, which has an interior chamber, and which is made of a hardrigid plastic material; a buoyant foam plastic material within saidinterior chamber; and a hollow keel shell portion depending from thebottom of said shell body portion and having an interior chamber capableof receiving weighting material therein.

Further according to the invention there is provided a water fowl decoycomprising: a hollow shell body portion which has the shape of a waterfowl, which has an interior chamber, and which is made of a hard rigidplastic material, a bouyant foam plastic material within said interiorchamber; a hollow keel depending from the bottom of said shell bodyportion; and a weighting material in said hollow shell.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a water fowl decoy constructed inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention and is shownanchored in water.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the water fowl decoy similar to theview shown in FIG. 1 and shows the decoy anchored on land.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view and is taken along line 3--3 of FIG.1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the decoy shown in FIG. 1 with the keelseparated from the body to show the manner in which the keel is fixed tothe body.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

Referring now to FIG. 1 there is illustrated therein a duck decoy 10constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.Although a duck shape is shown for the decoy 10 it is to be understoodthat the decoy 10 can have the shape of other water fowl, e.g., theshape of a Canadian goose.

The decoy 10 includes a body 12 in the shape of a duck, and a keel 14fixed to and depending from the underside of the body 12.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the keel 14 has a forward boss 16 and arearward boss 18 on the forward and rearward edges of the keel 14. Eachboss 16 and 18 has a throughbore, 20, 22 therethrough which forms ananchoring structure. In this respect, as shown in FIG. 1, anchor ropes24 and 25 are received through the bores 20 and 22 and are knotted attheir upper ends 26, 27 to form stops which abut against the upper edgeof the bosses 16 and 18 thereby to anchor the decoy 10 in water. Ofcourse, weights (not shown) are attached to the other ends of the ropes24 and 25.

The keel 14 has a depth of approximately three (3) inches so that whenthe decoy 10 is placed on land as shown in FIG. 2, the body 12 of thedecoy 10 is at a desired height as a standing duck would be. Also thebores 20 and 22 in the bosses 16 and 18 now serve to receive stakes 30and 32 therethrough for fixing the decoy 10 on land in an uprightposition.

In accordance with the teachings of the present invention and as shownin FIG. 3, the body 12 is made of a rigid shell 34 which is filled witha buoyant foam plastic material 36 and which has the coloring of aparticular water fowl. If desired, the shell 34 can be hand painted.

The shell 34 is preferably 0.125 inch thick and is made of a thermalplastic material such as the material sold under the trademark E-1000Renflex by Triangle Plastics, Inc.

The buoyant foam material 36 is injected into the shell 34 through asuitable opening therein, such as through a bottom opening 38 (FIG. 4).The foam material is preferably a polyurethane foam system based on apolymeric isocyanate of the type sold under the trademark ISOFOAM R0380Bby Witco Chemical Corporation.

The keel 14 includes a rigid plastic shell 40 having a closed bottom andbeing open at the top. A mounting flange 42 extends laterally from thetop of the shell 40 for fixing the shell 40 to a planar bottom surface44 surrounding the bottom opening 38 in the shell 34 of the body 12. Thekeel shell 40 is filled with heavy material, i.e., is "weighted".Preferably such heavy material 46 is concrete which is inexpensive andeasy to insert into the keel shell 40.

Referring now to FIG. 4, it will be apparent that once the body shell 34has been filled with buoyant foam plastic material 36 which has beenallowed to cure and set, and once the keel shell 40 has been filled withconcrete which also has been allowed to dry and set, the flange 42and/or the planar bottom surface 44 are coated with an adhesive andpressed or held together until the adhesive sets or dries.

It is to be understood that the use of a buoyant foam plastic material36 can also be used to rehabilitate existing decoys of the type having ahollow sealed shell where the integrity of the shell has been broken,such as by buckshot. In this respect, according to the teachings of thepresent invention such a decoy can be salvaged by practicing the methodof the present invention comprising the steps of: providing an openingin the shell body of the decoy; filling the shell with a buoyant foamplastic material; and, allowing the foam plastic material to cure andset. Also, of course, such rehabilitated decoy can be fitted with a keellike the keel 14.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that the waterfowl decoy 10 of the present invention has a number of advantages, someof which have been described above and others of which are inherent inthe invention. More specifically, the decoy 10 is easy and inexpensiveto manufacture, is always right-side-up by reason of the keel 14 andanchoring means--it will maintain itself in wind and waves by reason ofthe keel 14, and will always float notwithstanding buckshot holes in thebody 12 thereof because of the buoyant material 36 within the shell 34.

Also it will be apparent that modifications can be made to the decoy 10without departing from the teachings of the present invention. Forexample, the body 12 and keel 14 can be made or mounted as one piecewith keel 14 initially open at the bottom. Then, foam plastic materialis inserted through the opening in the bottom of keel 14 into body 12and allowed to harden. Then, after the foam plastic material hardens,cement is inserted into keel 14 and allowed to harden into concrete.Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is only to be limited asnecessitated by the accompanying claims.

We claim:
 1. A water fowl decoy comprising: a hollow shell body portionwhich has the shape of a water fowl decoy, which has an interiorchamber, and which is made of a hard, rigid plastic material; a buoyantfoam plastic material within and substantially filling said interiorchamber of said shell body portion; said hollow shell body portion beingclosed except for an opening in a bottom portion thereof for injectionof said buoyant foam plastic material into said interior chamber throughsaid opening; and a hollow, elongate, plastic keel shell portion whichis mounted to said shell body as one piece, which depends from saidbottom portion of said shell body portion, which has an interior chamberand which has an opening in an upper portion thereof and an opening inan exterior wall thereof, said shell body portion being in communicationwith said interior chamber in said keel shell portion through saidopenings in said shell body portion in said upper portion of said keelshell portion whereby said buoyant foam plastic material can be insertedthrough said opening in said exterior wall of said keel shell portioninto said interior chamber in said shell body portion and allowed to settherein and, whereby weighting material may be subsequently insertedinto said interior chamber of said keel shell portion through saidopening in said external wall of said keel shell portion.
 2. The decoyof claim 1 wherein said external wall is a bottom wall of said keelshell portion.
 3. The decoy of claim 1 wherein said buoyant plasticmaterial is made of a polyurethane foam system based on a polymericisocyanate.
 4. A water fowl decoy comprising: a hollow shell bodyportion which has the shape of a water fowl, which has an interiorchamber, and which is made of a hard rigid plastic material; a buoyantfoam plastic material within and substantially filling said interiorchamber of said shell body portion, said hollow shell body portion beingclosed except for an opening in a bottom wall thereof for injection ofsaid buoyant foam plastic material into said interior chamber throughsaid opening; a hollow, elongate, plastic keel depending from saidbottom portion of said shell body portion, said hollow keel beingmounted to said shell body portion as one piece, having an interiorchamber, and having an opening in an upper portion thereof and anopening in an exterior wall thereof, said shell body portion being incommunication with said interior chamber in said hollow keel throughsaid openings in said shell body portion and in said upper portion ofsaid keel, whereby said buoyant foam plastic material can be insertedthrough said opening in said external wall of said keel into saidinterior chamber in said shell body portion and allowed to set therein,said opening in said external wall providing passage means through whicha weighting material can be inserted; and a weighting material in saidinterior chamber of said hollow keel.
 5. The decoy of claim 4 whereinsaid external wall is a bottom wall of said keel.
 6. The decoy of claim4 wherein said buoyant plastic material is made of a polyurethane foamsystem based on a polymeric isocyanate.
 7. The decoy of claim 4 whereinsaid weighting material in concrete.
 8. A method for making a water fowldecoy comprising the steps of:providing a hollow shell body portionwhich has the shape of a water fowl, which has an interior chamber, andwhich is made of a hard rigid plastic material, said hollow shell bodyportion being closed except for an opening in a bottom portion thereof;providing a hollow elongate plastic keel depending from said bottomportion of said shell body portion, said hollow keel being mounted tosaid shell body portion as one piece, having an interior chamber, andhaving an opening in an upper portion thereof and an opening in anexterior wall thereof, said shell body portion being in communicationwith said interior chamber in said hollow keel through said openings insaid shell body portion and in said upper portion of said keel;injecting through said opening in said external wall into said interiorchamber of said shell body portion a buoyant foam plastic materialsubstantially filling said interior chamber in said shell body portion;and, allowing the buoyant foam plastic material to set and harden insaid interior chamber.
 9. The method of claim 8 including the subsequentstep of inserting a weighting material in said interior chamber of saidhollow keel through said opening in said external wall.
 10. A water fowldecoy comprising: a hollow shell body portion which has the shape of awater fowl and which is made of a hard rigid plastic material, a keelshell portion which is made of a hard plastic material, which dependsfrom said shell body portion and which defines with said shell bodyportion communicating interior chambers with passage means therebetween,a buoyant foam plastic material within said interior chamber of saidshell body portion, and a weighting material within said interiorchamber of said keel shell portion.